Nanny (don't know if it's her real name) won my heart with her soaps, so I'm through the journey of trying as many of her soaps as I can. There's something special about her soaps. I like to think that they are the kind of soaps that my mom would do. They are usually simple scents, and some of them have a little twist, due to the usage of spices like coriander, nutmeg, or lemon basil in this case. I find this particularly interesting because I'm not a big fan of heavy spices in my food but seems to work very well in her soaps.
Now, back to our review. This is the first soap that I've tried from her Traditional line. The Signature line is vegetal, while the soaps in Traditional one contains tallow, so we're having a tallow based soft soap.
Ingredients: Potassium stearate, aqua, potassium tallowate, potassium cocoate, potassium castorate, Kaolin, sodium gluconate, citral, hexyl cinnamal, limonene, linalool, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone.
Scent: It is described as the name implies, a simple scent with two components, lemon basil and mandarin. Now, upon smelling it, I feel that lemon scent is overpowering everything else. I'm not getting too much mandarin and even less basil. I don't know how lemon basil is supposed to smell if it should smell like basil, but I'm not getting any kind of basil out of it. Lathered up, the scent does not change too much. It's a shame, to be honest, I was really hoping that my carve for Nanny's kitchen spices would be rewarded with this one. Unfortunately, it wasn't. I don't enjoy the scent, I feel that is too simple, the lemon being too sharp and overpowering anything else. As a comparison, I love the Citrus Zinger soap that's also lemon based, but over there, the nutmeg is really balancing everything out, but on Lemon Basil & Mandarin, there isn't really a component to balance the scent. 6/10
Lather: I was impressed by the lather produced. I feel that the tallow version performs a bit better than the vegetal one regarding how lather looks. Easy to lather, produced a rich, creamy lather without any problems. 10/10
Perfromance: Everything is very close to the Signature series. Glide is great, I can say that I feel a bit less residual slickness on this one than on the vegan ones, but just by a notch. Protection is still there. Now, on my face, as I'm having problems with some soaps, this specific one, Lemon Basil & Mandarin gives me a burning sensation on the second and third pass. Not really happy with that, but I've found out that I'm more sensitive to some specific soaps than many other people. In any case, the performance is there and I'm sure that will work awesome for everyone else. 7/10
Post-shave: Post-shave was always a bit tricky for me to consider, as I don't feel that the soap is affecting my face too much after I'm done shaving. If anything, I had my face drier after I was done shaving with Lemon Basil & Mandarin that I had with other soaps from Signature line. It might be from other reasons too, the temperature, the air humidity. I'm not gonna rate this, because I don't feel that amazing post-shave effect that some people are feeling when using specific soaps.
Packaging: On this chapter, I was very impressed. On my previous review, I expressed my disappointment in tins that were packaging the previous soaps. Now, the soaps come in big, plastic cans, and they are great. Wide enough to swirl your brush in them, and they are also high, filled half with soap, so I'm not making a mess on my hands. Perfect size. They also stack, witch is great. 10/10
Overall, still satisfied by Nanny's Silly Soap, but not by this particular soap. The scent is the first miss with this brand, and I have tried 4 soaps so far. I find the ratio very good, as I am in generally prickly about the scents. The burning sensation, also, first miss on this chapter, didn't had any problems with Signature line. I will stick to the Signature line from now on, and I might come back to Traditional later on. Definitely not a bad soap, only not a good one for me.
Now, back to our review. This is the first soap that I've tried from her Traditional line. The Signature line is vegetal, while the soaps in Traditional one contains tallow, so we're having a tallow based soft soap.
Ingredients: Potassium stearate, aqua, potassium tallowate, potassium cocoate, potassium castorate, Kaolin, sodium gluconate, citral, hexyl cinnamal, limonene, linalool, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone.
Scent: It is described as the name implies, a simple scent with two components, lemon basil and mandarin. Now, upon smelling it, I feel that lemon scent is overpowering everything else. I'm not getting too much mandarin and even less basil. I don't know how lemon basil is supposed to smell if it should smell like basil, but I'm not getting any kind of basil out of it. Lathered up, the scent does not change too much. It's a shame, to be honest, I was really hoping that my carve for Nanny's kitchen spices would be rewarded with this one. Unfortunately, it wasn't. I don't enjoy the scent, I feel that is too simple, the lemon being too sharp and overpowering anything else. As a comparison, I love the Citrus Zinger soap that's also lemon based, but over there, the nutmeg is really balancing everything out, but on Lemon Basil & Mandarin, there isn't really a component to balance the scent. 6/10
Lather: I was impressed by the lather produced. I feel that the tallow version performs a bit better than the vegetal one regarding how lather looks. Easy to lather, produced a rich, creamy lather without any problems. 10/10
Perfromance: Everything is very close to the Signature series. Glide is great, I can say that I feel a bit less residual slickness on this one than on the vegan ones, but just by a notch. Protection is still there. Now, on my face, as I'm having problems with some soaps, this specific one, Lemon Basil & Mandarin gives me a burning sensation on the second and third pass. Not really happy with that, but I've found out that I'm more sensitive to some specific soaps than many other people. In any case, the performance is there and I'm sure that will work awesome for everyone else. 7/10
Post-shave: Post-shave was always a bit tricky for me to consider, as I don't feel that the soap is affecting my face too much after I'm done shaving. If anything, I had my face drier after I was done shaving with Lemon Basil & Mandarin that I had with other soaps from Signature line. It might be from other reasons too, the temperature, the air humidity. I'm not gonna rate this, because I don't feel that amazing post-shave effect that some people are feeling when using specific soaps.
Packaging: On this chapter, I was very impressed. On my previous review, I expressed my disappointment in tins that were packaging the previous soaps. Now, the soaps come in big, plastic cans, and they are great. Wide enough to swirl your brush in them, and they are also high, filled half with soap, so I'm not making a mess on my hands. Perfect size. They also stack, witch is great. 10/10
Overall, still satisfied by Nanny's Silly Soap, but not by this particular soap. The scent is the first miss with this brand, and I have tried 4 soaps so far. I find the ratio very good, as I am in generally prickly about the scents. The burning sensation, also, first miss on this chapter, didn't had any problems with Signature line. I will stick to the Signature line from now on, and I might come back to Traditional later on. Definitely not a bad soap, only not a good one for me.
